Finishing wood surfaces



(No Model. I

A BRYCE FINISHING WOOD SURFACES.

1 N0. 446,962. Patented Feb. 24, 1891.

' Mil/EH70 JQIAW WIT/VESSESI T ATTORNEY.

" STATES Pnrnnr FFIQE.

ANDREXV BRYCE, OF PITTSBURG, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF TO JOHN A. MCCONNELL,OF ALLEGHENY, PENNSYLVANIA.

FINISHING wooo SURFACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No; 446,962, dated February24, 1891. Application filed June 26, 1890. Serial No. 356,739. (Nomodel.)

I 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ANDREW BRYCE, a resident of Pittsburg, in the countyof Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Finishing Wood Surfaces; and I do hereby declare thefollowing to be afull,clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to the finishing of wood surfaces, its object beingto form a wood surface which will bring out into clear relief thenatural grain or fiber of the wood. It is known, of course, thatpractically all wood has a grain or fiber and between such grain orfiber a filling of softer or porous material, which is generally knownas pith, and the ordinary planed and polished wood surfaces expose toview the surface as it appears in taking a section through both thefiber and pith of the wood.

The mass of surface-finishing processes heretofore employed have had fortheir object the closing up of the pores of the pithy portion of thesurface of the wopd, the sawing and finishing of the surface, cuttingthrough the fibers or growths of the wood body, and so exposing thesofter portions, which are liable, on account of their more porousnature, to rapid disintegration or decay when so exposed to theatmosphere, and also are liable to catch and hold the dirt, so that inorder to impart a durable surface it is necessary to fill up these poresof the wood with paint, varnish, or other filling material, as employedin the many different processes for finishing wood surfaces.

The special'object of my invention is to remove this pithy portion ofthe surface of the wood and bring out .in o relief the harder woodfibers, which, as they stand above the softer portions of the wood, areenabled to take the wear, and as the pith is removed a greater surfaceof the fiberis exposed and the pith is protected by the fiber thusraised into relief and extending above it, so that so great a portion ofvarnish, filler, paint, or like for closing the pores of the wood is notrequired, while at the same time the grain of the wood is brought intoclear relief and a very hand some finish is imparted to the woodsurface,

according-to thefibers of the wood, and verydurable.

To these ends my invention consists, gen.

erally stated, in removing the pithy or soft or porous portions of thewood between the grain or fiber, leaving the grain of the wood raised inrelief abovelthe body thereof, this being generally accomplished by theemployment of a properly regulated and applied blast of sand or otherabrading material which will out out such pithy orsoft portions of theWood, while it has but littleaction upon the harder and fibrous portionthereof.

It also consists in a wood body having the pithy portion of the surfacethereof removed therefrom and having the fibrous portion raised inrelief above the body thereof.

To enable others skilled in the art to practice my invention, I'willdescribe the same more fully, referring to the accompanying drawings, inwhich- Figures 1 and 2 are face views of wood surfaces in accordancewith myinvention. Figs. 3 and 4 are end or edge views of the surfaces sofinished. Fig. 5 is a view ofthe mouth- I piece ofsand-blastingapparatus suitable for practicing my invention; and Fig.6isacross-.

sectionon the line 6 6, Fig. 5.

Like letters of reference indicate like parts in each. I

In the'forming of wood surfaces for the finishing of any desiredwood-work it is of course customary by means of saws, planes, or othersuitable tools to bring the surface of the wood to a flat, curved, orother desired surface cor-- responding in shape to the article orsurface to be formed, whether itbe for any article of furniture,thewood-work of apartments, such as doors, windows, panels, molding, orlike uses; After the wood has been brought to the desired shape, thatillustrated in the drawings being the ordinary flat surface, by anysuitable means I remove the pithy portion of the wood-surface, leavingthe grain or fiber in relief, and to accomplish this I preferably causethe impingement of sand orlike abrading material upon the surface withproperlyregulated force to cut out and remove such softer or pithyportions of the wood. -T his abrading action on the wood surface leavesthe grains, fibers, tubes, &c., raised in relief above the body of thewood. This is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in Figs. 110 4,showing in Figs. 1 and 3 a wood of fine grain or fiber having the softerportions removed in the manner above described, while Figs. 2 and 4 showa like surface of coarse grain or fiber having the softer or pithyportions thereof removed in the same manner and the grain or fiberraised in relief. In said figures, a a represent the ,grain or fiber ofthe wood thus raised in relief, while the domes sions between them (seeb b, Figs. 2 and 4) illustrate the spaces from which the pith or softerportion has been removed. By this process the wood surface reveals thenatural fiberof the wood raised up in clear relief, while at the sametime, as it cuts-away the softer portions from between the grain orfiber, it exposes a greater portion of the hard fiber of the wood, theonly pithy or soft portion exposed being that at the bases of the grainor fiber, which portion is protected by the raised grain or fiberextending above it. The wood surface therefore presents to the eye anirregular oncarved appearance, varyin g according to the grain or fiberof the wood, and bringing into relief the almost innumerable difierencesof surface, according to the diflerent woods treated, the processtherefore enabling me to produce a surface very much enhanced in beautyover the ordinary plain surface produced by planing and polishing. At

the same time as the sand or like blast employed acts upon the surfaceof the grain or fibers it smooths and polishes the sides or facesthereof, imparting to the finished surface a smoothness of finishextending over the. diiferentfibers so raised in relief and producing afinished surface, in which the ribs or ridges formed by the grains areall smoothed and finished, and may, if desired, be employed without anysurfacing.

At the same time as the only portion of the soft or pithy portion of thewood exposed is that lyingat the bases of the fibers any finishin gsubstancesuch as paint, varnish, filling, or the like ewill moreperfectly seal and close the same, since so much of the pithy portion ofthe wood is not exposed and the grains or fibers stand up above thesame, and the varnish or like protecting substance is supported by theharder grain or fiber in such way that a thick coat of varnish will actto perfectly seal the wood and protect it from theaction of theatmosphere, any such sur-' facing being employed according to the use towhich the wood is to beapplied.

In the treatment of the wood the sand or other blast acts, of course,principally on the softer portions, so that there is not the cuttingaway of the harder body thereof as occurs in the ordinary sawing orplaning of the wood, arid the weaker or softer parts of the wood willthus lie back of the harder growths thereof, which project out on thesurface and protect the softer body from deterioration by theatmosphere, while at the same time the liability of injury to thesurface of the wood from expansion and contraction, which in theordinary surface often causes the cracking or breaking away of thesofter or pithy portions of the wood is reduced to a minimum.

' In Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings is shown the men th-piece ofapparatus suitable for practicing my. invention, and as any suitableform of sand or like blasting apparatus may be employed for the purposeIwill simply describe the same generally. The wood to be treated, asshown at d, is fed over any suitable guideway e past the mouth f of theabrading apparatus, the board, block, timber, &c., to be treated beingpreferably of as great width as the mouth f, so as to prevent theescapeof the sand. Communicating with this month f are any desired number ofsandblast pipes, such as g h 2:, through which the sand or otherabrading material may be proj eeted upon the wood passingthe mouth-piecein any desired quantity and at any regulated speed, as may be founddesirable. For the purpose of acting upon the pithy portion of the woodI prefer to project the sand against.

the same at one or more angles, as shown.

In practicing my invention with the apparatus above described the woodto be finished is fed across the mouth-piece f over the guideway e,being held close to that mouth-piece in any suitable way, and the blastor blasts of sand or other abrading material cause the same to strikeagainst the surface of the wood in the manner above described.

It is evident, of course, that one, two, or any suitable number ofblast-pipes may communicate-with the mouth-piece, these pipes beingarranged to strike againstthe wood surface at any desired angle, and theblast from the several pipes being so regulated as to exert a forcesufiicient to abrade or cut away the pithy portionswithout destroyingthe fiber or grain, and at the same time to polish and finish thesurface of the fiber or grain. The process may be employed in finishingany form or shape of wood prior to constructingthe articles of furnitureor woodwork therefrom, or may be applied to finished wood-work, theabrading apparatus being in thatcase properly mounted, so-that its blastor blasts maybe brought directly against the surface to be treated.

The wood surfaces treated in the way above described have thus the grainor fiber raised -in relief, imparting to the surface of the woodthebeauty and variety of finish, and having all of the advantages abovedescribed.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. The herein-described method of finishing wood surfaces, consisting inremoving the soft or pithy portions of the wood surface, leaving thegrain or fiber thereof raised in relief above the body thereof,substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

' 2. As a new article of manufaoture,a wood body having the pithyportion of the surface thereof removed, and having the grain or fiberextending in relief above the body of the Wood, substantially as and forthe purposes to set forth.

In testimony whereof I, the said ANDREW BRYCE, have hereunto set myhand.

ANDREW BRYCE. Witnesses:

JAMES I. KAY, J. N. COOKE.

